My Thoughts on Endermen
by ArthaDemon
Summary: This is not actually a story, but instead my headcanon on the Minecraft Enderman race. This is the thoughts I used on the Endermen in my story, Living with an Enderman. Rated T for brief explanation of Ender reproduction and how it generally works.


_[Author's Note: These are MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS on Endermen. These are by no means meant to line up with all the theories out there. These are just my own personal ones, mostly for my story, "Living with an Enderman"_

_If these do not line up with your headcanon, please don't crawl up my ass about it. This bieng said, I LOVE world-building and creating creatures and races. I got bored, and decided to add my creative touch to Endermen. I love them; because they remind me of my character Erebos (Primal God of Void and Shadow; He's incredibly sweet and painfully shy and socially awkward despite his terrifying appearence. Like the Endermen he is pitch black with an elongated frame; he has wicked sharp claws and glowing white eyes and inside of his mouth. Terrifying to behold but a total sweetie. xD) - the first time I saw one I was like "Awww he's like Erebos!" - then it attacked me. And I was like "NOT LIKE EREBOS BUT AWESOME ANYWAY!" and thus started my love affair with the species!_

_Otherwise, ENJOY! :D]_

**Race** – Endermen (They do not call themselves this – they call themselves the Shadowed Ones, or at least that is the closest translation that can be figured out)

**Homeworld** – The Endrealm. Called this by humans, the End is said to be the last dimension before the Void. Even lower then the Underrealms. The Ender call their realm Darkworld or Darkrealm.

All energy is drained from the End by the Void beneath; as such Enders have to leave to feed. It is now ruled by a ferocious dragon of darkness and void, known as the Enderdragon. It's presence has made the Ender more aggressive and paranoid, and more likely to attack when frightened. They are unable to kill the dragon; and do what they can to survive despite it. Many flee to other worlds and live there instead.

**Attribute** – Darkness and Void

**Strengths** – Teleportation ability, supernatural strength, stealth, able to see very well in complete darkness. Speed, stamina. Razor sharp claws that can slash through most things. Sharp teeth; more for show the actual use. Not as sharp as the claws.

**Weaknesses** – Water, fire. Water will kill an Enderman very quickly and leaves grievous wounds; looking as if the Enderman was splashed with acid.

**Sexual Dimorphism **– No. Ender males and females look almost identical. Genitals are internal. To determine gender look between the legs. The males have a slit more towards the front of the crotch. Genitals only emerge when in a state of arousal. Females on the bottom of their crotch, not visable from the front. This slit is very subtle, and from a distance telling gender is impossible. Even their voices sound nearly the same between genders.

**Reproduction and Gestation** -

A female Ender will enter a receptive state every so often. No real pattern to this, but a female raising a child can not enter this state. This is the only time she can become pregnant. It lasts for a few days. She gives off a very strong scent, that rouses the males into excitement; causing them to follow her an attempt to impress her. She is able to breed only once in this state, then her receptive state is over; so she must choose the sire carefully. The males will scuffle among themselves, and the strongest, healthiest males will compete to gain her attention. Once the female has chosen, the other males will give up and find another release. Often in the form of a female who is not receptive; since she can not become pregant she does not care about the health or strength of the male.

Females are pregnant for about the same amount of time as humans are; though Ender perception of time is VERY different then human. Humans have the sun, and the moon; night and day. The Ender's home is in perpetual darkness. Children grow at about the same rate, as well.

Females do not nurse their young; but rather provide energy to them until they are old enough to gather energy on their own. Females are extremely protective of their children. An Ender will not hurt a child, of any race. They will defend a child, of any race, fiercely. An Ender protecting their offspring is incredibly dangerous. Children can not teleport on their own without guidance; thus the parent can't teleport away if they feel their child is in danger, and will attack until their 'attacker' is dead, not just knock them down and run. Every time a human or other sentient has died at the hands of an Enderman, it has been one defending their offspring.

**Lifespan** – Unknown. An elder Ender has never been spotted; they seem to live on until they are killed.

**Level of Intelligence **– Feral Sentience. A mix of wild, feral instinct and logical mind, emotion, and reasoning. Capable of a full range of emotion. While many things go beyond their understanding, Enders are very intelligent and can generally figure things out.

**Language** – A series of cooing, chattering, chirring, growling, and other such vocalizations. They are not capable of human speech, so their language is different. Emotion is expressed through sound. Ender are VERY vocal. Their vocalizations, whether speaking or not, show their emotion and mood. One who spends enough time with one can learn to read them completely without even looking at them. It is safer to approach one who is calm; their sounds are generally soft, and gentle cooing. They also greet those they care about in this manner.

They can not speak human language – at least not very well. It comes out hard to understand though they can form some words. They can, though, learn to understand human speech with some time and effort. Their language is much simpler so many words and concepts they do not understand. A human can learn Enderspeak, and could possibly even immitate the sounds – but again it would be hard, since body language and tone of voice is every bit as important to Enderspeak as their voice.

Sound is very important to them, since this is how they communicate their mood and emotion. They vocalize constantly, often soft, frequent cooing and chirring; even quiet chirps from time to time.

**Naming - **An Ender has two names. The vocal name that is called, and their energy signature. The Energy Signature within each Enderpearl is different, and this is how they recognize eachother. The name is simply their vocalization to put sound to this energy. Ender names are sounds – not words, thus hard to translate, so when a human gets to know them they just say what the name sounds like in their own laguage. The Ender are smart enough to know the name the humans have given them, if they get close enough to one.

**Temperament **– Generally calm and passive. Observers. Shy; they prefer to remain hidden. They can become highly aggressive if threatened, and will fight until they feel the threat has passed. This makes them dangerous, due to differences in how they, and most other humanoids, express emotion.

Social creatures, they prefer to be in the company of others of their own kind.

Enders find the Overworld fascinating. They enjoy gathering various stones, materials, and such, and taking them back with them to their home. They are particularly fond of grass, flowers, plants, and other growing things. Anything colorful or shiny will catch an Ender's eyes, and they will take it with them. They often come back for more grass because the grass they brought back quickly dries out.

**Culture** – Endermen have a very simple culture, really. A lot of the wild, feral side of them works into this. They don't really have a leader or ruler, and generally just live together. They protect females who are pregnant or with young, though the father is the one who protects the most. They do not choose a mate. Reproduction has nothing to do with feelings of love for them, but rather to make offspring. They do though, share very close bonds of friendship.

**Diet** – Energy. Endermen do not eat, or drink. They could eat if they wanted, but the thought has never crossed an Ender's mind. They see no reason to do so. They often go to the Overworld, or 'Brightworld' as they call it, to feed. Generally, a few hours taking in the ambient energy around them is good enough. They prefer darkness because it is familiar to them. Sunlight does not hurt Enders; in fact, once they get used to the brightness many actually enjoy it; it provides a lot of energy, but also leaves them out in the open and easier to see.

Endermen are capable of eating, BUT their teeth are not designed to chew with. They must either eat things that are very soft, that can be mashed between their tongues and the roofs of their mouths, or cut the food into tiny bits. For most, this is more trouble then it is worth since they do not need to. They DO have working digestive systems, but they are vistigial at best; because of this when an Ender actually DOES eat the energy is extracted from the food and the rest is left behind as dust after their next teleport. If it did not do this it probably wouldn't make the trip through their digestive system since this is stunted. The presence of this vestigial digestive system says that their far, far, far ancestors probably did eat to suppliment their energy intake.

**Relationship to other Sentients** – Paranoid and afraid due to bad runins and misunderstandings, but very Curious. Enders find other races frightening and strange. They are able to ingest water; which is utterly deadly to an Ender. Due to their frightening appearance, other races have often attacked and killed Endermen, which has not made things any better. A direct stare to the eyes without permission is a sign of challenge, or threat; and our fear reaction is a threat reaction to them. When an Enderman is about to attack, they fully open their mouths,showing their teeth, scream, and charge. A human opens their mouth and shows their teeth when they scream; This makes the Ender feel threatened, and it will attack in self defense. Once the threat his disabled, the Enderman prefers to run away. Because of this, many people have terrible tales to tell about the creatures. They come back, bleeding from grievous injuries with stories of attack from a lone dark figure that moved with unnatural speed and screamed like a banshee. What they do not realize is that if the Ender had intended to kill them it would have; their strength is 10 times that of a human. And once the human is down, the Ender is gone.

**Anatomy** – Generally humanoid with some distinct differences. Long and lanky. Unusually long arms and large clawed hands. Digigrade. Four sharp talons on feet. Look skinny. Similar setup of organs. Blood is deep purple black, slight glow. Their chest contains an orb just below their heart called the Enderpearl. This is the source of their teleportation abilities, as well as allowing them to process and take in energy. It sends this energy out through the rest of their body. Occasionally, it produces smaller pearls, which are left behind when an Ender teleports; the buproduct of their teleportation, and diet of ambient energy and the method used by their Enderpearl. These smaller Pearls can be used to teleport once or twice, but cause pain due to instability. The main pearl can allow a human to be more like an Ender; able to subsist on energy and teleport. Taking an Ender's pearl, though, is a good way to anger them. Each Enderpearl is unique in its own way, in color, texture, and energy; it is like their name. Their identity. In this sense, it is like their heart.  
When an Ender dies, the Enderpearl is all that is left behind. They call it "heartstone" in their language. This is kept by those closest, in a place of honor to remember the dead Ender. The smaller byproduct pearls, though, they don't really care about. These are useless to them. They are either ignored, or discarded.

Since they do not eat, they do not use the bathroom. They have no need to. An Ender CAN eat if he wants. All energy will be extracted, before the remains are left behind in the same manner as the smaller pearls; but instead of shining gems it's dust.

Endermen do have hair; it is generally wispy and shadowy; more like solidified shadows then actual hair. It is etherael, though effected by breeze and touch.

**Other Ideas**

Endermen can teleport other beings. It does take a bit of energy and is tiring. It is dizzying for the person being teleported and can cause sickness; until the person gets used to it.

Endermen actually find humans frightening and unsettling. They can ingest water, which kills Enders, and shoot it out of their bodies (In their minds of course). This makes them very defensive, and some will attack with a mere look out of fear. This is not helped by humans expressing emotion through face rather then voice, and some expressions being very different.

The open mouth scream, an expression of fear to a human, is a clear threat to an Ender. They will feel threatened and attack instantly.

Enders do not need to bathe. They get clean through teleportation. They can't teleport nearly as well when injured or sick. They can get sick; though this is rare. Ends with being very tired and lethargic. If not able to get enough energy to sustain themselves during this time, they die. Health can be told by the floating, glowing particles and aura around them. Dull, decreased particles means the Ender is either injured, or sick. The origin of this aura is unknown; has to do with the Ender's supernatural origins.

Enders have changed after the arrival of the dragon. More have fled to the overworld and females have actually started raising their children in dark, unpopulated areas.

Enders call themselves the Shadowed Ones or Dark Ones. They call their realm the Darkrealm or Darkworld.

When one sees a shadow figure, it is actually usually an Enderman. Not hostile, just curious. They are the source of some 'haunting' phenomena reported in many worlds.

Endermen deeply value friendship, and as such are insanely loyal. Gain one as a friend and they will die for you. Gain their trust and they will do anything for you.

They have very little concept of personal space. Endermen are very touchy with eachother. They spend a lot of time cuddling and generally being near eachother. They are VERY fond of touching. They often stay very near with those they care about.

They have no concept of doors. They have no shame in nudity. Enders do not wear clothes. Some, though, may decorate themselves with gems and things they have found.

There are a lot more males then females. For every one female there are at least 10-20 males. So competition to carry on one's genes is fierce. You are many times more likely to find a male Ender then a female, even if both genders look the same. While males do tend to fight over a mate, these scuffles never get bloody.

Some Enders can get very aggressive towards eachother; especially rival family groups. They do gather in groups, and some groups have different views them others. Enders of differing groups will fight viciously sometimes, even to the death. Fights ending in the death of one Ender is VERY uncommon, but it does happen. The sounds of two fighting Endermen is loud and horrible to hear. Very loud with a lot of screams and snarls and growls. And if two are fighting, more are likely to get involved from both sides of the group to defend their loved ones. They lash out with their fangs and claws, snapping and slashing. With the dragon's rule, more and more Enders have become viciously aggressive, so sadly fights break out a lot more often. Some are loyal to the dragon, despite the fact that it eats them and hoards their Pearls to feed. It is simply Survival. Those loyal to the dragon have began to deify it; and become almost fanatical. These are the most dangerous of the Enders even to others of their own kind.

If the dragon is killed, the Enders would turn on those loyal to the dragon. Much life would be lost, but things would go back to normal after a time. Endermen are very resiliant. If their population went down too drastically, more females would become receptive more often, and more females would be born.

Enders are very graceful. When not teleporting they tend to move in long, gentle strides.


End file.
